The Aggies’ Cotton Price and the backfiring truck

COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M’s Stephen McGee and Jerrod Johnson are both fighting shoulder injuries right now, but both quarterbacks plan on playing Saturday against Army. Cotton Price could relate.

You find some real gems in old newspaper clippings when researching for a book — the only reason I’m able to share these anecdotes now.

Price, who passed away this week at the age of 90, entered the 1940 Sugar Bowl with some serious pain — and walked away with the Aggies’ lone football national title.

Here’s what coach Homer Norton had to say of Price leading up to the Sugar Bowl showdown with Tulane:

“My quarterback spot is my biggest worry,” Norton said. “Price has had that bad charley horse for three weeks now. It’s better now, but if he gets hit hard, he’ll have to come out. And Marion Pugh, my second-stringer, has been in the hospital for a week with a stomach disorder. So you can see what a danger spot this is for the Aggies.”

Shoot, Price just felt lucky to play in the game, after nearly blowing himself up in the summer of ’39.

“He got burned bad,” teammate and all-time A&M legend Jarrin’ John Kimbrough once told me. “He was putting gas in his truck and it backfired.”

Five months later, the Aggies defeated Tulane 14-13, and a handful of cadet legends were born. On Wednesday, another of those legends died — leaving one less national champion to pass along great stories from yesteryear.